Conventional medical image laser printers expose silver halide film which must be chemically processed using liquid chemicals. There is a need to eliminate wet processing for environmental, cost of installation, and ease of maintenance factors. One way to fulfill this need in medical image laser printer systems is to use photothermographic ("dry silver") film which is thermally processed. A need arises for a mechanism to transfer film from the printer to a heated drum thermal processing unit in a way which ensures good film registration relative to the processor mechanism and enhances processing uniformity and film path accessibility.